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Beware of Apple ID is Locked Scam – Update

One of the most popular article we published, and the one we
get the most comments about has to do with an attempt to get your Apple ID and
password.

We first published this warning in September 2017 and since
then, many of our readers have reported still receiving an email stating that
their Apple ID is locked.

Because this is still happening often, we thought it would
be good to repost the original information and provide some important updates.

Here is one example of an email being circulated.

At first glance, this looks pretty official and you might
not see any reason not to follow the instructions, but a closer look reveals
multiple items that tells you this is fake.

If you are not familiar with receiving notices from Apple
you would not realize that they don’t use a black Apple logo in the center of
the page. The current layout uses a gray
Apple in the upper right hand corner, like this.

We should note that some readers have reported that at least
some of the newer emails now have a gray Apple logo although some are still in
the middle of the page.

Also notice that the fake notice is signed “Apple Support
Team” instead of the official signature “Apple Support.

Those differences in and of themselves would probably not
give anything away but if you examine how poorly the fake notice is written,
you might start to get suspicious.

Take a look at the first line of the fake notice which says,
“Your Apple ID was sign in to iCloud With Other Devices site at:” Aside from the strange use of capital
letters, the phrase “was sign in” is an indication that the author does not use
English as the first language.

A similar error is in the next sentence where it says,
“Support team detect unauthorised person
accessed. You would expect the
sentence to begin with something like, “The” Support team or “Our” Support
team. At the very least, they should
spell authorized properly.

The notice says, “If you do not update you account within 24
hours it will be temporarily limited.
Does anyone know what that even means?

Finally, the signature on the message is all-wrong. An official Apple notification ends with a
simple, Sincerely. We have never seen
anyone use the phrase, “Thank you for your comprehension.”

Finally, if you looked at the address that the email came
from, you would see that it looked like this.

not-reply@noticesuportalertapplecustomerscare.fly.mail.net

There are several red flags in this email address that you
should notice.

First and perhaps most obvious, there is nothing in the
address that references apple.com

We know that a company like Apple has more email addresses
than you could possible remember, but they all have one thing in common, they
all end in apple.com. Here is the
address from the official Apple notice shown above.

AppleSupport@InsideApple.apple.com

Next, notice that the word “support” is missing a “p” in the
address. But perhaps the biggest tip-off is the word “scare”, right in the
address.

Even noticing a few of these issues should be a warning that
something is not right.

But what if you miss all of that and click on the “UNLOCK
NOW” button? You are taken to a site
that looks like this.

Fake Apple ID Page

Whomever set this up took a great deal of time to copy the
actual Apple ID Log-In page. Here is the
official Apple page.

Real Apple ID Page

At first glance, these are identical, until you look at the
URL. In Safari, where URLs get shortened by default, the address bar shows
Apple Inc. If you select the URL to see
the entire address it looks like this.

https://appleid.apple.com/#!&page=signin

The fake page had this address.

Costomers-stesid.idmacunlocked.ga

Notice that Customers is spelled “Costomers”. Another indication that whomever set up this
page was probably not that familiar with the English language.

By now, we hope you would have seen enough to
know this is a scam, designed to get your Apple ID and password. But even if
you missed all of these signs, consider one more point.

The original email said your Apple ID had been
locked. The email took you to a site
that was asking you to enter your Apple ID and current password. If your account was truly locked, your
current password would no longer work.
Of course, by the time you might have realized that, it would be too
late and the scammers would already have your information.

So, what to do?

As a general rule, you should be suspicious of
any email that asks you to provide your ID and password why you did not go to
that site on your own. Look for signs of
improper English, unusual email addresses and URLs that don’t specifically
reference apple.com.

And should you get an email that claims your
account is locked, we suggest before you do anything, try logging in to your
account from a site you go to on your own.
Since this is supposed to be your iCloud account, open a browser and go
to www.icloud.com. Enter your ID and password.
If the site works, your know your account is still valid and the email
is obviously a scam.

While this article addresses a specific scan
regarding your Apple ID, the same rules apply to any email you get that reports
your on line account is locked, broken or otherwise at risk. We have seen similar emails for PayPal,
Amazon and banking site. We have even
received emails about ID issues with companies and sites we never did business
with.

The same rules apply. Look at the email address, web site urls, check your site credentials on your own and check if it’s a site or business you even recognize. Finally, if you do fall prey to a scammer and you think they have gotten your ID and password for a site, you should immediately change your password for that site and any other sites that may use the same password or even similar password.

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